Ornament Thursday: Academia

School is back in session in most of the country (we have been back for almost a month!) so this month’s Ornament Thursday topic should be a great one for teacher gift ideas. I always loved having a brand new batch of #2 pencils to start the school year. Freshly sharpened and with full erasers…these days, my daughter prefers mechanical pencils and gel pens, so this project was a walk down memory lane.

This is a collaborative project with my bead buddy, Deanna Chase (a new OT contributor) and I think we came up with a pretty darn cute project! It started with Deanna’s teensy lampwork pencils (which you can see on Deanna’s blog) and ended up as these whimsical earrings:

Supplies for this project include:

2 Sterling Silver earwires of your choice (these are from Saki Silver)
4 matte black 8/0 seed beads
4 Bali silver daisy spacers, 6mm
4 flat head sterling silver headpins, 2″
1.5″ sterling silver rolo chain, 3 or 4mm width
4 handmade glass pencil beads, 8x20mm (these are from Chase-Designs)

You can probably figure out the assembly from the picture, but I threaded a seed bead, pencil bead, and daisy spacer on each of the 4 headpins.

Then using a needlenose plyer, I made a wrapped loop to finish off 2 pencil components.

Make a loop on the remaining two pencils, but don’t wrap yet.

Cut the silver chain into 2 even pieces and thread the end of one onto each of the loop of the remaining 2 pencil components.

Finish with the wrapping and trim any excess wire from the headpin.

Gently open the loop end of your earwires (note: if it doesn’t open, then you will have to wirewrap it onto it). Slip the loose chain end of one pencil onto the earwire end and then slip one of the simple pencil components on. Close off the loop with your plyers and repeat for the second earring.

That’s all there is to it! And if you want to make your own pair of pencil earrings, check with Deanna for the beads…if you like them but don’t want to make them, send me an email: joolzbylisa@cox.net! I’ll hook you up…

If you have children returning to school, or you are returning to school, or you are a teacher, I hope it is a great school year. Take some time to check out what the other talented OT ladies were up to this month!

Art Bead Scene & The Golden Rule
The Art Bead Scene editor shares a few words of wisdom for jewelry designers.

Back to School-Make your own Pencils
School is back in session, everyone needs new pencils. Why not glass?

BeadStyle goes back to school
Lindsay Haedt’s on her way to the classroom, but not before Linda shares one of her recent designs

Beading Help Web Wires Up Academia
Lynn Kvigne to read! While you can easily use a scrap of paper or an old magazine subscription card for a bookmark, why not whip up a stylish book mark instead?

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Cindy’s learned how to Mail!

First Day
Michelle’s School Book – it’s academic!

Michelle’s Edumacation
Michelle has yet another go at decorating Helen’s workstation, this month, less scary than last but oh, so funky

Swelldesigner goes crazy over school supplies!
Alexa shows you how to turn pencil grips into ultra funky accessories